trans_9 | Doing the Dirty Work [Open!]

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Doing the Dirty Work [Open!]

How did Applejack stand working so hard around the farm? Her secret was simple: combining work and play. She'd brought the same styl to Hydroponics, where she'd sectioned off a small patch of the ground to be a place for some of the animals to play. The grass was dug up and seeds were planted elsewhere, water was poured, and Applejack herself was pounding her legs into the dirt. Making mud! Her bright orange coat was now coated in brown, and the longer she worked, the further she sank.

But this wasn't very fun. Back home, she'd done---yeah, that was what was missing! She hopped out of her little mud pit, tracked dirt across the grass, and set off at a fast trot. "Yee-haw!"

If anypony happened to be hanging about, they'd be splattered when the large pony came crashing down, rolling in her little pit of dirt. Her hat sat some distance to the side, miraculously untouched by the splattering of mud. Surely most would know to stay away from such a display.

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"Well, as history tells us, in one great battle the forces of Science and Technology broke the back of Magick, and for hundred of years since it's been in a sharp decline. In my modern day, it's secret knowledge. Most people -- almost all people -- don't know it exists. Don't believe in it. It's a fairy tale, a fantasy story, everyone knows there's no such thing as magic."

This is where it stopped working quite so well as an analogy, since as he understood it, all ponies who could do magic had horns. Kind of hard to hide that.

"There's an entire secret organization dedicated to keeping it that way, too. If they find someone who can use magic -- a '"reality deviant' as they'd say -- they'd do something to take them out before anyone could find out the secret."

"Gosh," Applejack whispered, her ears drooping. That sounded completely awful. "And where do you fit into the picture? Are you...you know?"

"A Mage, yes. Though I should add that on Earth -- on my Earth, there are a lot -- any human has the potential to work magic in one way or another. Most of them never do, because being able to do it requires you realize, on a very deep and primal level of yourself," he said, touching a fist to the base of his rib cage, "that reality isn't static. It's all based on belief.

"Some years back I kinda got my soul yanked into and trapped in a magic sword. That woke me up real quick. Nothing but trouble since," he said with a grin.

That was...really neat, actually. She smiled up at him, shaking her head. "But it's all okay here, ain't it? Sure, there's still trouble, but you're not gonna be 'taken care of'?"

"Nope," he said, his grin turning confident. "But you gotta admit, that's really only trading one problem for another, right?"

"Yup. But we'll all take care of it together!" she promised, waving her hooves in the air in a little hop. "Now how 'bout we rest up a bit?"

"You're the one that's been cantering around," Morgan pointed out with a smile. "I've barely done anything but get muddy."

"That's true. But I thought you might've come from someplace where you were doing that training. I need to do more of that, actually. Things just got wild around the barn," she said apologetically.

"It's been a long time since I wore myself out training. Most of what I do is maintenance and slow progression, you know? So it's very sustainable." He lifted his fists to flex briefly, just because he liked to show off. "I've got endurance to spare!"

"Showoff," Applejack rolled her eyes, but fondly. "All right. Not that I'm a branch ready to break myself, but I oughta work on getting up there."

"When you work as hard as I do, you get to show off a little. It's a reward. But you're definitely not in danger of breaking. You just need to learn to use what you've got!"

Applejack was impossible not to like, in Morgan's view.

"I will," Applejack promised, smiling over at him. "If I can be the best farmpony, I can be a good warrior too."

He nodded firmly. "And for a lot of the same reasons. Strength and stamina are good, but those can be learned. It's responsibility and hard work that matter the most."

"I can do that." It was a date, then. "Guess I'll be seeing a lot more of you?"

Unless somehow he ended up with a girl stuck in his body, but what were the odds of that happening?

"Maybe too much. You might have nightmares about me once I start really putting you through some paces." He paused, then. "Um, is that a horrible expression to use in this case?" Because despite it having entered into common usage, Morgan had realized that it originally applied to, well, equines...

Applejack had to think about that for a moment. "I'll let it slide, alright? And don't be so sure you won't have nightmares after dealin' with me," she grinned not-so-innocently.

"I think I'm less likely to have nightmares about it and more likely to have laryngitis," he said, trying so hard to keep a straight face -- but the corners of his mouth kept twitching, and he couldn't hide the wicked sparkle in his eyes. "At the very least, this whole experience might leave me..." Wait for it. "A little hoarse."

Applejack groaned. Oh, just great. Perfect.

"Nah, y'all don't have to worry about that happening. Don't think I've ever seen anypony change like that."

Yeah, just playing along here.

The groan earned a laugh. He leaned backwards, propping himself up with his hands to look up into the air. "It was a bad joke, but I could. Believe it or not."

Applejack needed two seconds to consider that.

"Nah, don't believe it." She needs more than that.

"Really? There's no magic on your world that would let one creature take the form of another?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. Granted, he'd only seen minor feats of magic from Rarity, but he'd also been in the presence of Princess Celestia, who gave off an aura of... possibility.

"...don't think so," she said slowly. Nah. Couldn't be, right?

"And after everything you've seen, done, and been through, you don't think it's possible?" he said, waving a hand lazily in the air to encompass all of everything. Then he looked at her slyly. "Or maybe you think I'm just boasting and making stuff up, hmm?"

"Could be," she shot back, lifting an eyebrow. "You wouldn't be the first person talkin' a load, but I put more faith in you than that. I just haveta wonder."

"I can do a lot of impressive things," he said, still amused. "But to be more specific, there's a certain level of understanding of how living creatures work, and the deeper your understanding, the more you can do. You remember I helped you sleep, once, right? That's part of that general understanding. I have a pretty deep knowledge of that sort of magic, because for some time I was working very hard to get that knowledge so I could heal my sister." The one he'd suggested she name the tree after, at that.

"Actually, I've never taken on the form of another sort of living being. But I know I can do it. The knowledge was just... incidental to learning what I really needed to do."

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